That Night
by autumn midnights
Summary: 'He felt frozen in place.' Theodore Nott saw his mother die, and the school carriages were never horseless to him.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter._

_Content warning for domestic violence and overall unhealthy family dynamics._

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Theo didn't hear the beginning of the fight.

He had been in the library after dinner, and some time had passed. It was getting late, at least for a nine-year-old, but since Theo stayed home and didn't attend school, keeping to a set bedtime was not generally a priority. He stayed out of trouble, anyway. Most of the time, he retired to the library and read for a while before bed.

That particular night, he fancied a snack with his book, and decided to go down to the kitchen to bother Libby the house-elf for a treat. The kitchen was always stocked full, and he wondered if there was any pie left from the day before.

The corridors were dim. His eyes adjusted quickly, thanks to many nights up late. He was tall for his age, but thin, and his footfalls were near-silent. He had gotten quite good at walking quietly; not disturbing his parents, or avoiding them if they were in a mood, was often a necessity.

The door to his dad's study was cracked open a few centimeters, light flickering inside.

"You ridiculous woman!"

Theo peeked through the crack just as his father slapped his mum hard across the face. She staggered, her hand flying up to her cheek. Her dark hair cascaded down her back in waves. It always occurred to Theodore how much younger she was compared to her husband; his dad had completely gone grey.

"I'm done!" She sounded wild, hysterical, her voice shrieking upwards. "You're a goddamn monster, I can't believe I ever married you, it makes me _sick-"_

Theo's father drew his wand. Theo felt frozen in place, unable to move; he couldn't leave his mum alone, but no more could he intervene, because the cold anger in his dad's eyes was utterly terrifying. "Go ahead, say that again," he said icily.

She threw her hands out. She was wearing a white nightdress, no wand in sight. "Oh, are you gonna curse me? Finally tired of pushing me around like a filthy Muggle criminal? What, you want to return to your old ways - missed them, did you? Why don't you invite some of your sick little friends over, all of you can have a go, that's what you did, isn't it?"

"Shut up. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about, you were barely more than a child."

"I was taking my NEWTs while you were _torturing _and _murdering _people, you sick bastard!" She lunged for him, her hand reaching up for his wand, but he hissed a spell and she flew backward, her head slamming against the mantle of the fireplace with a sickening crack. She crumpled to the floor, blood pooling beneath her. Theo yelped.

The door swung open, and Theo's father crossed the room, grabbing him by the arm before he could run away.

"Mum!" He jerked his arm out of his father's grasp and knelt down beside his mother. Her eyes were closed. Her chest wasn't rising and falling. "Dad, Dad, we need to do something, we need to get her to St. Mungo's-"

He felt the strong hand on his arm again, yanking him away from her limp form. "She's not going to St. Mungo's," his dad said, whirling him around so they were facing. "She's gone. And you're not going to say a word about this to anyone." His nails squeezed into Theo's arm. "This was an accident. We had an argument, she was running, and she tripped and hit her head."

"Dad, why did you do that?" Tears rolled down Theo's face. "I saw you hurt her."

"No, you didn't." His father's eyes were icy cold. His wand was pointed down, but he hadn't put it away, as though he were considering that he might need it again. Theo stared briefly at it, vision blurred by tears. His father was still holding his arm in a vise grip; he wanted to kneel down again and really check if his mum was okay, properly check, because maybe she was all right, maybe he had just missed a really faint heartbeat and really shallow breathing-

"Dad," he pleaded, and couldn't say anything beyond that plaintive word. He tried to wrench his arm free, but his father held tight.

"You aren't going to say a thing, Theodore." His father's voice was low, dangerous. "Do you know what I could do to you, boy?"

Theodore thought of what his mum had said, what she had accused his dad of, and he trembled. In that moment, seeing the look on his dad's face, he could believe it, that his dad was capable of such Dark things. And after seeing what had happened to his mum, the thought of his dad raising his wand against him no longer seemed like an impossibility.

"Now what did you see?" his dad said.

"I - I saw her trip and fall and hit her head." Theodore wiped his hand across his face. His dad released his arm.

"And that's all you'll ever say," he said. "You ever say otherwise, I'll know. And-" he held his wand up threateningly- "there's plenty of curses that don't leave a mark on you, and I won't think twice about it if I find out you told. Go on to your room, I need to take care of all this." He waved a hand at the general direction of Theo's mother's body, and tears welled up in Theo's eyes again as he turned on his heel.

He didn't sleep that night.

There were many nights that year that he didn't sleep, as he tossed and turned and replayed every time he had to tell that lie and defend his father.

(And nearly seven years later, when his father was arrested for fighting as a Death Eater at the Department of Mysteries, he viciously thought '_Serves you right', _and he slept soundly that night.).

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_A/N: The circumstances behind Theodore being able to see Thestrals have never been revealed in a lot of detail, and this has been my headcanon for his mother's death for years. I've alluded to this in old fics about Theodore, but this is the first time I've written about it in-depth; Theo's brief appearance in my recent longfic 'forty-eight hours' made me intrigued by his character again, and as I believe that this situation greatly shaped him, I wanted to write this before anything else about him, even though I don't typically write characters this age. _

_If you enjoyed, please leave a review! _


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